Presumpscot River Settlement

The full text of the Settlement Framework Agreement is here.

The Portland Press-Herald news story of Wednesday July 11 is of little use.

Bottom lines:

1. The proposed Agreement places a legal prohibition on fish passage at any dam on the Presumpscot River until 2016 (Saccarappa), 2026 (Mallison Falls), 2031 (Little Falls) and 2036 (Gambo Falls). And no fish passage ever (Dundee Falls). The entire Presumpscot is only 24 miles long from tidewater to Sebago Lake. Without dams, an Atlantic salmon could swim up the Presumpscot River from Casco Bay to Sebago Lake in one day. Under this proposed Agreement, it will take an Atlantic salmon 30 years to swim just 7 miles, from Westbrook to Windham. Under this proposed Agreement, Atlantic salmon will never be able to swim more than 10 miles up the Presumpscot River. And never to their native home in Sebago Lake.

2. The proposed Agreement would violate Maine water quality law and the Clean Water Act. -- the same laws the State of Maine went to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2006 to defend. And won. On the Presumpscot River. At these same dams. For these same fish species. The duplicitousness of the State of Maine knows no bounds.

3.The proposed Agreement pushes the job of restoring the Presumpscot River's native fisheries to the next generation by relieving everyone in positions of influence today from having to do anything on the Presumpscot River for the next 10 years. This is because the Agreement would legally prohibit any fish from swimming over the Saccarappa Dam until 2016 at the earliest.

4. Even if hundreds of thousands of sea-run fish are below the Saccarappa Dam in 2009 or 2011, this Agreement would legally prohibit them from swimming upstream until 2016 or later.